Announcement from FIRST:

 “The Pine Tree Regional Chairman’s award represents the true spirit of FIRST.  It honors the team that best serves as a model for other teams to emulate and that embodies the goals of FIRST.  It remains FIRST’s most prestigious team award.  The Chairman’s Award is presented to the team judged to have the most significant measurable impact of its partnerships among its participants, school, and community over a sustained period, not just a single build season or school year…” 

 “…They (AIR Strike) provide year-round support for all levels of FIRST teams and are involved in their community helping the needy, as well as those who serve our country.  This team actively manages and involves its members through regular goal setting and action planning.  They STRIKE their target community engagement by reaching out to students from across their entire state.”

 Winning this award qualifies the team to compete against 350 teams at the FIRST Robotics Competition World Championship in St. Louis, MO, April 24-27, 2013

 AIR Strike 78 would not be possible without the support of our friends and family and our generous sponsors. Sponsors provide funding, tools, and technology professionals and include the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport, the National Defense Education Program (NDEP), Raytheon, BAE Systems, and KVH.

1)      Webcast: The GSR will be webcast again this year, hosted by Code Red Robotics, Team 2771. The webcast link will become active on Friday, March 1^st. The link to the webcast may be found on the BAE Systems Granite State Regional website.

2)      Event Agenda: The final event agenda has been posted on the FIRST website for teams that have not already downloaded it.

The “Design” award is presented to a team that demonstrates an organized and professional approach to the design process, project management, time management and team organization. Teams will be assigned a 10 minute time slot during which the team will set up and deliver a presentation to judges. The winning team will be able to describe how they created and implemented an efficient and productive design process to effectively manage their time and resources to accomplish their project goals.

Both Teams 78C and 78A will be competing in a Super Regional on March 9th in Concord, NH.

The “Think” award is presented to a team that has successfully utilized autonomous programming modes during competition. Quality, consistency and success of autonomous programs in being an integral part of an effective strategy as well as the ability of the students to explain their programming process from strategy
to syntax will help to determine a winner of this award. This award may be judged by the referees, programming inspectors and/or members of the judge panel.
Key Criteria:
1) Team’s autonomous code is effective to task, cleanly written, well-defined, and elegantly designed
2) Team has explained a clear autonomous strategy, that is a part of their overall strategy to win the game
3) Team’s autonomous code is consistently successful in the field
4) Teamwork and interview quality

ULTIMATE ASCENT is played by two competing alliances on a flat, 27 x 54 foot field. Each Alliance consists of three robots, and they compete to score as many discs into their goals as they can during a two (2)-minute and fifteen (15)-second match. The higher the goal in which the disc is scored, the more points the Alliance receives.

The match begins with a fifteen (15)-second Autonomous Period in which robots operate independently of driver inputs. Discs scored during this period are worth additional points. For the remainder of the match, drivers control robots and try to maximize their alliance score by scoring as many goals as possible.

The match ends with robots attempting to climb up pyramids located near the middle of the field. Each robot earns points based on how high it climbs.

Click here to watch the 2013 game video.